Catalog 288 (for November) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapersis comprised of more than 300 new items, a selection which includes: a complete printing of The Declaration of Independence, George Washington is elected President, a first report of the Great London Fire, a terrific & displayable Abe Lincoln centerfold, the full text of the Continental Association (in a Virginia newspaper), the Coronation of the King & Queen (in a London newspaper), and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

Catalog 287 (for October) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapersis comprised of nearly 300 new items, a selection which includes: the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” newspaper, a rare Civil War camp newspaper, the “Corinth Chanticleer” from Mississippi, a Broadside “Extra” on the capture of Jeff Davis, a great Battle of Gettysburg newspaper, a Confederate broadsheet “Extra” from Georgia, and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

This week as I was pulling some Gentleman’s Magazines to fill online catalog gaps, I hovered over an issue prior to searching within the computer system. It was dated July 1776, and I took a minute to let that soak in. I am regularly awestruck at handling all these papers, but particularly anything from such an important, pivotal year and month in American history. Actually, I suppose it was significant to world history as well.

This is not a museum, however, but a place of business and conscience compelled me to limit my sighing to less than a minute before turning to the keyboard and pulling up the listing for this title and date. And, as I read the opening lines of the description, I felt again the great privilege I have to be here.

“It is rare to find newspapers or magazines with the magical date of 1776, let alone ‘July, 1776’. Here is one.”

These paragraphs are such valuable tools for searching as well as learning. While Timothy Hughes Rare and Early Newspapers can boast 44 years in existence as a business, the depth of knowledge of history and its significance that is applied to filtering through the millions of papers in order to present each one goes far beyond a mere business listing. And the one that filled my screen only served to deepen my wonder at this treasure trove chronicling the earliest days of this country.

The first article contains 3 pages of text on events in America, including: “Proceedings of the American Colonists since the Passing the Boston Port Bill” with various reports, one stating that: “…the main army of the United Colonies has changed its situation; and that the head-quarters are now at New-York, where Gen. Washington has already taken up his residence…”. A proclamation issued by Congress concerning a redress of the grievances of the colonies says in part: “Therefore, Resolved, that it be recommended to the respective Assemblies and Conventions of the United Colonies, where no government sufficient to…their affairs has been…established, to adopt such a government…”, signed in type: John Hancock. Perhaps the most significant report is one mentioning the convention at Williamsburgh containing an important resolve (see) passed by the delegates which reads in part: “…That the delegates appointed to represent this colony…be instructed to propose to that…body to declare the united colonies free and independent…and that they give the assent of this colony to such declaration …..

I remember in my first days here, wondering if I would be required to wear gloves when handling these issues. My query was shrugged off, but I have been asked the same by friends and acquaintances when I talk about my job. We are used to seeing important things enclosed and protected behind glass and velvet ropes. But these papers were made to be read, and passed around so the news could spread. The older ones are often in better condition than the ones from the past few decades. Still, they are individually protected within folders, as much to keep the edges safe and protected as to shield from light and other environmental contaminants. I like that the storage options we use are the same as those we offer to our collecting community. Even though the crew here is much more seasoned than I, there is an unspoken acknowledgement that this is really amazing stuff, and I am not the only one that gets a bit awestruck…

It’s hard to put into words all I learned last week, other than conclude (again) I work in an amazing place. Distinct events blurred together as we completed the regular tasks of a pre-catalog release week, simultaneous with the receipt of eleven pallets of a new title.
As I know the least, I am the least helpful in this bulk intake process. Everyone else has done it before – making space where none seems apparent. So I stayed out of the way, fielding phone, email and web orders to the best of my ability.This week, however, marks the Fourth of the July, and I took the opportunity to look at some surrounding details of 1776 through the real time lens of reported news.

The Sons of Liberty met under the Liberty Tree. It’s not an American fable; I read the notice calling for attendance and providing an alternate location in case of overflowing turnout. People staked fortune and life to sign the Declaration of Independence, and Philadelphia papers published their names alongside that document. Paul Revere was a working man who bought advertisements in The Massachusetts Centinel to draw more customers into his silver shop. Somehow, the risk of this bid for colonial freedom becomes more meaningful as I consider the sacrificial participation required from everyday people who had plenty to occupy them in their own private lives. Regular folks became significant because they stepped up when there was every reason to keep their heads down.
Today I am thinking about the farmers and shopkeepers, the printers and the writers who looked beyond immediate concerns to take a stand for the implications on centuries to come. Surely these are some for whom the words resounded, “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary…” I won’t pontificate aloud, but there are so many contrasts to the perspective I readily adopt within my plush and easy American life.

Fresh perspective on the human story feeds the impulse: the more I find out, the more I want to know. But the disconcerting truth is that the more I search, the more versions I find. The best course of action just might be to head back into the annals and read it for myself…

Catalog 284 (for July) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapersis comprised of nearly 300 new items, a selection which includes: a Pennsylvania Journal with the segmented snake cartoon, a Williamsburg (VA) newspaper on the Gunpowder Plot, Lincoln’s assassination (in a Washington, D.C. newspaper), the famous Honolulu Star Bulletin reporting the Pearl Harbor attack, the capture of Ethan Allen, an issue with the “Beardless” Lincoln print on the front page, and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

Catalog 283 (for June) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapersis comprised of over 300 new items, a selection which includes: the New England Restraining Act (in the ‘Virginia Gazette’), the famous ‘Vicksburg Daily Citizen’ (of July 2/4, 1863), a rare broadside reporting Lincoln’s assassination, one of the best stock market crash issues (in the ‘New York Times’), a fascinating and famous UFO abduction incident in a ‘hometown’ paper, a very rare Salem witch trial newspaper, and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

Catalog 282 (for May) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapersis comprised of over 300 new items, a selection which includes: a set of “National Intelligencers” on the Dred Scott Case, Washington’s inaugural (with an eye-witness account), a 1775 “Virginia Gazette” from Williamsburg, the very rare “Daily Rebel” from Chattanooga, a Broadside “Extra” announcing Lincoln’s assassination, a 1755 “Maryland Gazette” (quite rare), and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

Now that I have been here for a couple of months, the fuzziness is clearing a little bit more. Even better, to my way of thinking, is a growing familiarity with names and voices of some long-time collectors. It’s a cheery thing to have someone greet you by name with an optimistic lilt to their new request. At least, it is a very cheerful thing to me and I have a growing collection for whom I feel a certain ownership. It helps the general air of camaraderie that I am getting it right at least as often as I get it wrong these days.

One of the customers I am silently referring to as “mine” has a list of dates and titles, and he doles them out to me at a rate of about three or four a week. He fits that category the crew here refers to as “research request”, and I am always happy when he calls or emails. Like some collectors, this gentleman is pursuing a theme, and his quests for pertinent people or events can span more than two hundred years. There are sections of our archives that I now find quickly, and those titles are easily located and verified for desired content (by people much more proficient than I). Occasionally, there is a request that leads me to a part of the archives I would swear was not there the last time I searched that quadrant.

This week an assignment took me up to the ninth row of aisle WC. After pulling out the very bottom volume (these are anywhere from ten to fifteen pounds each, and stacked four or five high) I swooshed down to find a table upon which to search the pages for the relevant issue. And that’s where I began to learn brand new things. This volume, all wrapped and sealed as if ready for shipping, surely required a different process than I had used on previous queries. But when asked, both of my sources responded with faint groans and some muttered utterances that still perplex me. The upshot was that it is all the fault of some fellow who wanted to increase the profit margin on newspapers and led the industrial trend to switch from rag paper to newsprint made exclusively of wood pulp. Consequently, a newspaper from 1600’s or 1700’s is able to be folded and rolled and thoroughly read — while a New York Times from June of 1900 can crumble just from attempting to lift a page.

A name was uttered — and I would repeat it if I knew I had the facts just right. But I don’t even understand clearly what makes the paper so bad. It has something to do with acidic materials used to create the wood pulp that damaged the integrity of the pages over a period of time…

It takes me back to Walt Whitman, with apologies for the repetition. His chatty interview with Robert Ingersoll was published in the pulpish time of The World (NY) dated October, 26, 1890. The content is rich with dialogue and illustrations, but there aren’t many copies that survived, due to their fragility. Thankfully, the publishing houses learned from their mistakes and by the 1930’s changes were made.

Anyway, I am pleased to be making your acquaintance, and now know how to treat future pulpish requests, should they arrive.

Catalog 281 (for April) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapersis comprised of over 300 new items, a selection which includes: a Virginia newspaper with the Suffolk Resolves, the Fugitive Slave Act (in a Washington, D.C. newspaper), a Butter & Bourne newsbook from 1632, a Great Stock Market Crash issue of the New York Times, the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline, a Great Battle of Gettysburg report, and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

Catalog 280 (for March) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapersis comprised of over 300 new items, a selection which includes: a ‘Boston News-Letter’ (1740), a ‘Virginia Gazette’ from Williamsburg (1775), a first report of Lincoln’s assassination, a San Francisco newspaper on the 1906 earthquake, a great slave ship print from 1860, a rare Civil War magazine: ‘Soldier’s Casket’, and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog: